We believe that taking a holistic view is the way forward. This view considers how everything fed to an animal combines and interacts in the gastrointestinal tract. It’s the driving force behind nutribiosis – an approach developed to provide new insights and help animal producers to:
While the industry traditionally looks at them on their own, we take a holistic approach to optimizing your livestock production by focusing on the interactions between nutrition, microbiome, and gut and immune function.
We call this state, nutribiosis.
A favorable nutribiotic state in the gut equals good intestinal health and optimal performance.
Understanding this approach brings new insights that help you to improve the gut health of your animals and make more profitable decisions, leading to improved animal welfare, performance, and sustainability.
This complex understanding of nutribiosis is what defines our approach to optimal livestock production.
The complex understanding of nutribiosis is what defines our approach to optimal livestock production.
Ensuring that the animal has all the nutrients needed to reach its full potential. It is also important to either limit the amount of undigested nutrients or control the types of undigested nutrients that reach the terminal ileum, so that we don’t provide substrates on which the non-beneficial bacterial populations can feed and thrive.
The diversity of microorganism is key: where beneficial bacteria outnumber non-beneficial bacteria, keeping possible opportunistic pathogens under control. This avoids the occurrence of sub-clinical and clinical disease challenges that would otherwise reduce overall performance and profitability.
They are vital to allow animals to maximize nutrient absorption and deal with challenges when they occur – whether they are bacterial, viral or environmental. Any immune response mounted by the animal uses energy and can negatively impact growth if the immune response is sustained or uncontrolled.
The nutribiotic state can be favorable or unfavorable. Achieving and maintaining the optimum balance between these three components – known as a “favorable nutribiotic state” – is crucial for good gut health in an animal, which in turn helps to maximize performance. However, the fragile environment of the gastrointestinal tract means that it is susceptible to a range of external factors, such as climate, environment, or disease, which can throw this trinity off-balance.
To explain the value of nutribiosis it is helpful to look at it in the context of several examples: where different interactions between its three pillars lead to a “favorable” or “unfavorable” nutribiotic state and a corresponding positive or negative outcome in the animal.
Good Gut Health & Optimal Performance
Poultry: The use of Syncra® AVI, our unique enzyme and multi-strain probiotic solution, in feed formulation positively influences the nutribiotic state – even for low-challenge birds. This includes improving intestinal integrity and gut health, enhancing the digestibility of starch, fat, and protein as well as increasing beneficial bacteria populations versus non-beneficial equivalents.
Swine: Our adaptive protease and probiotic solution, Syncra® SWI, has been shown to improve key interactions within the gastrointestinal tract in grower and finisher pigs. It works to improve gut barrier strength through tighter junctions, enhances protein digestibility, amino acid utilization, and fiber-bound nutrient release, as well as positively impacting the microbiome function in a number of important ways.
Phytase: Axtra® PHY GOLD, the phytase gold standard, breaks down phytate quickly before it binds the protein, avoiding the antinutritional effect and improving nutrient uptake for a healthier, better-functioning gut. This results in less undigested protein reaching the caeca or hindgut, reducing protein fermentation and potentially reducing ammonia production, contributing to a favorable nutribiotic state.
Poor Gut Health & Suboptimal Performance
Poultry: Necrotic enteritis is a condition that arises from a combination of an intestinal challenge – such as coccidiosis – and an overload of nutrients in the latter part of the intestinal tract. The opportunistic pathogen, C. perfringens, thrives on the high levels of undigested protein that are present, causing intestinal damage and negatively impacting gut function.
Swine: High protein diets are associated with swine dysentery. This is due to its low nutrient digestibility which, when combined with poor management practices, can cause an increased prevalence of Brachyspira hyodysentariae. This spirochaetal bacterium induces excessive inflammation and necrosis of the epithelial surface of the caecum and colon (large intestine) and diarrhea.
Phytate: phytate binds protein in the upper gastrointestinal tract, making it unavailable to the animal, resulting in increased acid and pepsin production in the stomach. This increases acidity so as the stomach empties it can damage the gut absorptive surface and requires more buffering through the release of sodium bicarbonate. The increased demand for sodium negatively affects gut function by depleting sodium levels in cells, reducing the functionality of the sodium pumps required for key nutrients such as glucose and amino acid absorption.
As leaders in both enzyme and gut health technologies, we aim to realize the full potential of nutribiosis by leveraging our extensive expertise encompassing:
